Statement from the Saudi Federation

The Saudi Football Federation has filed a formal complaint with FIFA over the "bein sports" (formerly Al Jazeera) network exploitation of the 2018 World Cup ownership rights in the Middle East to transmit political messages against Saudi Arabia and its leaders, in order to spread and incite hatred among fans and people of the region in light of the network’s continuous breaches and exploitation thereof to mix politics with sports.

In its complaint to FIFA, the Saudi Football Federation made reference to the rejected political media statements made by the channel following the match between KSA and Russia in the World Cup opening. These statements issued by the channel’s presenters, analysts and commentators are a continuation of numerous breaches that took place in previous occasions and international participations and are contrary to the FIFA laws which provide that sports should not be mixed with politics.

In its complaint, the Saudi Federation called upon FIFA to take necessary and severe sanctions against the Qatari channel to protect the law and to avoid the exploitation of sports for malicious political objectives that distort and prejudice sports ethics. Such actions include FIFA’s interference and withdrawal of the channel’s exclusive rights in the World Cup or any other tournaments to safeguard football from distortions.